Thumbs Down On CL&P Hike, Up On Health Site Guru

Thumbs down to Connecticut Light & Power for proposing an outrageous increase in its fixed monthly customer charge. It's suggesting a 59 percent hike in its flat-rate service charge. What?! That would increase a consumer's bill by $114 per year, hiking it from $16 a month to $25.50, regardless of how little energy the customer may use. The company says the rate request is "to make important capital investments in Connecticut's electric infrastructure." But compare the CL&P rate to Boston Edison's fixed charge of $6.43 monthly and the Western Massachusetts Electric Co. charge of $6 — all of them subsidiaries of Northeast Utilities. CL&P's proposal is unfair to all its customers, but especially to those of limited means.

Blame the liberals and voters who put them in office. Blame the Courant for constantly endorsing the liberals and their policies. It''s not CL&P making up insane environmental rules that drive up the cost of energy.

Thumbs up to Kevin Counihan, the architect of Connecticut's heath insurance marketplace, on his new job. He's been named the first-ever CEO of HealthCare.gov. He'll be in charge of making sure the federal health insurance exchange runs better than it did last year. Mr. Counihan made a national model out of Connecticut's online health insurance marketplace, which was created under the federal Affordable Care Act. It has enrolled more than 256,000 state residents in private health plans or Medicaid since the website launched last fall. The best of luck to him in his new adventure.

Thumbs up to Superior Court Judge Kevin Dubay for refusing to seal student academic records in an important upcoming trial on funding Connecticut schools. "This will not be a trial decided by secret evidence," the judge said. Bravo. Sufficient privacy can be assured by using students' initials instead of full names, but the records themselves are germane to the case and shouldn't be kept secret in a public trial.

Thumbs up to the Connecticut Higher Education Trust college savings program — and thank you — for donating backpacks to 700 children at Camp Courant, the century-old free day camp open summers to any child age 5 to 12 living in Hartford. The backpacks were filled with school supplies such as notebooks and pencils, and also included piggy banks as well as information for parents about saving for education. CHET will donate a total of 1,700 backpacks this year. What a sweet way to encourage saving.

If this winter is tough on you, imagine being a wild animal. Shelters are reporting many casualties of storms and high snow drifts, including an unusual number of emaciated birds with broken wings. Thumbs high up to kindhearted animal lovers who are keeping their backyard bird feeders filled...

As the legislature examines Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's proposals to upgrade the state's highways, bridges, rail and bus systems, it must not neglect another important form of infrastructure improvement: Internet speed.

It's simple: Just providing voters with election information is key to improving voter turnout, according to a volunteer election watchdog group that has recently released a study of municipal websites.

Lawmakers, a word: Don't succumb to the siren song of secrecy piped by representatives of the University of Connecticut Foundation at a hearing before the General Assembly's higher education committee Thursday.

The huge reduction in Connecticut residents passing the General Educational Development test — an alternative to a high school diploma — is troubling. Education officials might look into whether the newly designed GED is too challenging.

There's no question that childhood obesity continues to be a problem in the United States. The medical conditions to which it is linked, from diabetes to coronary heart disease, are well known. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18 percent of American children under...